The Great Depression

The Great Depression really holds true to the title of the album. The Album is composed by Blindside, a band from Stockholm Sweden. The Great Depression is the bands fifth album and was released August 2nd 2005. The band genre is Hard Rock/Metal. This album was inspired by the lead singer, Christian's, trip to Africa, he was very upset by the things he saw and experienced during his time there which largely influenced this album.

The first track is just spoken and it is rather crackly like a recording of the time of the actual great depression. It has some of the most profound lyrics/poetry that psychologically convicts you. "We are the sons and daughters of a revolution, revolutionaries walking us out of
oppression and into a
no-low promise land.

And this is leaves us with a great sense of sadness dwelling inside our soul. no
one can explain where
its' coming from or where its taking us.

We just know that something is lost, but somehow we are lost, lost"

This is a great tone set for the album because it flows into the next song, "This is a Heart Attack." The use of dynamics is incredible. The band starts with a very on beat crunchy sound and then it just unleashes quite suddenly and unexpectedly. I do not know if it was intentional but the dynamics of this song carry similar attributes to an actual heart attack. When you take the background of the album you really see how the artist visited Africa and had a "heart attack" at the sight of what is happening there. The track the follows, "Ask me now" is also a great suffix to "This is a Heart Attack."

The next song is very morbid and depressing and you can see the prominence of the tragedy that occurs in Africa. The song title is "We are all going to die." The song directly influenced me due to my views on life due to the un-real amount of stress caused by school, the lyrics that applied most were as follows:

"Don't sing your last lullaby

I don't think it's time

We're all going to die
But we're all not meant to die young"

"Yemkela" is the song that the singer is clearly most passionate about. It is about an African boy he met in Africa who was dying of HIV and had 2 months to live. The song has a very intense rhythm line, there is a bi-chromatic approach of ascending and descending nature and then they use the flatted fifth to give it a very dark sound. You can hear it and really notice the music theory behind it, and I feel that it is a very solid song. I highly recommend viewing the lyrics.

The next couple songs all flow into a mountain of a song, starting off mellow, increasing in tension, crashing at its peak, and then reverting to a mellow lyrical balance. The titles are "Put back the Stars," "Fell in Love with the Game," and "City Lights." The song Put back the Stars really talks about realizing that we are lost in life. Fell in Love with the Game really convicts the listener of losing track of what you have and what is happening in life. The last song of this set really has a strong accented beat that the listener can tap there foot to with ease and get into the melody and lyrics.

The next 5 songs lead up to the grand finally of the album, lyrically, musically, and melodically. The very last song is "When I Remember." As the song plays it gives you the illusion that the album is dying because it is written about the way that Yemkela touched the life of the band member. 

This album is filled with passion and musical genius. The album clearly changed for me when i listened to the lyrics but it doesn't change the fact that the music is amazing. 

This album holds a solid 4 stars in my book. 

Nevermind

Nirvana is a band that is looked on as a grungy typical late 80's early 90's band. Well they are in fact, just that, well except for the word typical. Nirvana released 3 albums that changed music forever. The album that I will be talking about goes by the name of "Nevermind." ( The album cover below ordinarily does not have a rhinoceros saying the word censored but I try to find a clean album cover for the sake of my grade.)

The first track on the album can be considered the most mainstreamed track, it became an anthem among rock listeners. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" could be considered the epidemic for grunge. It starts off with a crunch guitar channel chugging out chords until a heavy drum kick comes in and brings in a very distorted rhythm guitar. When you analyze the lyrics to this song you realize there is absolutely no point other than to be melodic with the rhythm of the song. A lot of people hear this song and just hearing inane garbage when it reality it was a pioneering of a genre. Nirvana was a first of its kind and there for spawned the more accepted genre, Alternative Rock.

"In Bloom," yet another trailblazing song. The rhythm is all set by the drums, and the guitars just help bring the drums out. The lyrics again are just there to help you hum the song.  I think a big defining song for Nirvana is "Come as you are." Kurt Cobain had many brilliant quotes such as "I'd rather have people hate me for who I am then love me for who I'm not" and I think this song really exemplifies his beliefs and views. The song, as stated in the title, is a song of acceptance. Musically it is a great song, there is some synth in the background combined with a great melodic guitar rhythm.

The next song takes this album for a spin. Most of the songs on this album start soft, increase in action, decrease, have some singing, then increase again. The song "Breed" starts off and bites you in the face. It keeps up a heavy metal rhythm that you hear today and just makes you realize how ahead of their time Nirvana was.  "Lithium" could very well be described as the ramblings of an alcoholic in musical form. It still offers musical aspects that were not around at the time of its writing.

The innovation Behind Nirvana is what gives them a good name in my book, also if singing is not your strong suit, this is the band for you too sing too.

This album holds a solid 3 1/2 Stars.

Accordion Solo!

Accordion Solo! by Ten in the Swear Jar is what I would call musical feelings oppose to a musical composition. There are a couple tracks on the album that I would avoid due to the fact that they are just some person talking in a room that echoes and there are several expletives. The tracks to avoid are "Malafuquana Espana," "For Awesome Drunk Tank," "Melon," and "Accordion Solo."

The first musical track is called "Hot Karl," it is an amazing prelude to the album because it sets the tone with its unstructured abstract nature. The song is a great use of dynamics*, there is a slow guitar intro that is spastically non-rhythmic. As the song ventures on it rolls in to words that are gargled to the point of incoherence, then the singer sorts out the last couple words of the verse and brings it in with the guitar pieces that eventually picks up a rhythm. This a beautiful tone setting because most of the album has the overall dynamics of this single song. The next song is a great pick up from "Hot Karl," and the song title is "San Jose Fight Song." Never before have listened to a song with an accordion and gotten into the rhythm and put the song on repeat. The transfer between "Hot Karl" and "San Jose Fight Song" is not a smooth transition but it is an abstract and appropriate one. The song leaves you humming an according rhythm, how often does that happen?
    The rest of the songs follow a very similar pattern, Incoherent mumbling, miscellaneous rhythms, and bizarre background noises. I would say the song that should headline this album is "I Love the Valley," the lyrics are a mystery and the rhythm is impossible to purge from your brain. The lyrics are not as much words as they are melodic mumbling, so much so that you can pick up on it and mumble along without having to have any singing ability what so ever. The best part about this song is the synthesizer dynamic at about 1:30. The song slowly fades out and then a synth and accordion come in with a powerful chromatic descent.

This album leaves me wanting more but then all I have to do is put it on repeat.

The instrument diversity and catchiness of the songs makes me think this album is a solid 4 stars.




*Dynamics- It can be defined as the musicians used of aggressiveness. When a song starts out softly and gets really loud that is what could be defined as a good use of dynamics. Increase of volume is another synonym for dynamics.